2 more desert deaths in Sunland Park as 100-degree heat continues in El Paso area

Daniel Borunda, El Paso Times
·2 min read
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The desert surrounding Sunland Park claimed the lives of two women in separate cases Saturday despite rescue efforts in what has become a death zone for undocumented migrants in this summer's infernal heat.

U.S. Border Patrol agents on Saturday afternoon found a woman in the desert off Gila Drive and Carrizo Drive, which is near the border wall, the Sunland Park Fire Department said via the X platform, formerly known as Twitter.

More: 'It’s burning out there': Amid record heat, migrant deaths at border surge in Sunland Park

Border Patrol agents, firefighters and paramedics performed CPR on the woman, but she did not survive, the Sunland Park Fire Department said.

A Sunland Park Fire Department Humvee is used to cross rugged, sandy terrain to rescue victims and recover bodies of persons who succumbed to the heat in the desert. Many of the dead are suspected of being undocumented migrants trying to enter the U.S. through Sunland Park, New Mexico.
A Sunland Park Fire Department Humvee is used to cross rugged, sandy terrain to rescue victims and recover bodies of persons who succumbed to the heat in the desert. Many of the dead are suspected of being undocumented migrants trying to enter the U.S. through Sunland Park, New Mexico.

About two hours later, another woman was found dead after Sunland Park's search-and-rescue team was dispatched into the desert near the 3000 block of Memorial Pines Drive.

The identities, ages of the victims, country of origin and causes of death are under investigation by law enforcement and the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator.

Deadly, record-setting summer of 2023

El Paso has had a record-shattering 68 days of temperatures of 100 degrees or hotter this summer, including topping 100 degrees on Saturday, the local National Weather Service Office reported.

Temperatures could again reach 100 on Sunday and Monday.

A "cool front" is expected to arrive in the El Paso region on Monday night bringing chances for rain and dropping the high temperature to about 90 degrees, which is the normal temperature for this time of year, the weather service said.

Borderland: Bodies found buried in mass grave in Juárez

This summer's record-melting heat has pushed migrant deaths to a 25-year record with more than 130 victims and counting in the Border Patrol's El Paso Sector, which covers the westernmost tip of Texas and all of New Mexico.

Migrants sometimes cross the border already in a debilitated state after held by smugglers in sweltering stash houses in Juárez and walking for miles on the Mexican side of the border before climbing over the border wall, officials have said.

Some of those who died on U.S. soil were believed to have become disoriented and lost, sometimes dying just a few hundred yards away from homes and roadways in Sunland Park.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: 2 more deaths in border desert in Sunland Park, New Mexico